Non-interfering fire-alarm telegraph system



(N0 ModelJ Patented Oct 27, 1885.

4 gig W WW' W I lhvrrnn dramas I Parnnr @rrrca LEWIS H. MOGULLOUGH, OF RICHMOND, INDIANA.

NON lNTERFERlNG FIRE-ALARM TELEGRAPH SYSTEM.

ESPEQZEICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 329,187, dated October 27, 1885.

Application filed April 1, 1885. Serial No. 160,936. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, Lnwrs H. MoOULLoUeH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Richmond, in the county of \Vayne and State of Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Nonlnterfering Fire- Alarm Telegraph Systems; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My present invention is an improvement on that shown and described in an application still pending in the United States Patent Office, and entitled a noninterfering fire-alarm telegraph system, and it relates,chiefly,to an arrangement of circuits and apparatus whereby the amount of wire to be used in my system is greatly reduced. In the invention above referred to I connect all the signalboxes in a city system with a single centraloffice apparatus which is located in one of the engine-houses. This arrangement necessitates the running of a large number of wires, some of them over long distances,'to the central office. In the arrangement to which my present invention relates I locate similar apparatus in every engine-house, or in as many as desirable or convenient, and run to the central oiiice only asingle wire from each enginehouse. In this way every box is connected with an indicating apparatus which is near at hand, instead of requiring to be joined by a conductor of great length to the central office.

My improved system is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, which forms a part of this specification. The indicating apparatus at all the engine-houses, including that which forms the central office, is the same in general construction, but for convenience I have illustrated in detail the central-office apparatus near the center of the drawing.

Referring to the drawing as a whole, A A are dials having around their edges numerals, as 7, 9, 13, 850., representing the numbers of fire-alarm signal-boxes. The dials in different engine-houses will of course be differently numbered, as they will be connected with on tirely distinct sets of signal-boxes. Opposite each numeral is an oblong slot, a, whose longitudinal diameter is substantially at right angles to that radius of the dial which passes through the center of the slot.

A hand or pointer, B, which normally tends to move in the direction of the arrow, under the influence ofa spring, (not shown,) is mounted on a drivingsha-ft and held from turning by the stop d, as shown. The stop at is attached to an armature pivoted behind the dial, and is held out so as to engage with the pointer B by a spring in the usual manner.

The armature is operated by the electro-magnet E, attached to the frame of the dial.

In the same circuit with the electro-magnet E is a second electro-magnet, F, which is attached to the front part of the dial-box. Its armature-lever H is pivoted at g, and has no retractile spring, but is kept in any position in which it is placed (normally away from the core of the magnet F) by the force of the spring h, pressing the extension is of the armature lever H against one end of the slot at in the dial-face. The extension is loosely pivoted to the armature-lever H, and is located substantially at right angles to the armature-lever. In pressing the extension 70 against one end of the slot a, the spring It also presses it against the platinum point a on the conductingarm m, attached to the dial-box. The driving-shaft is connected through the enginehouses Y or bell-towers, or both, to one pole of the battery W. The other pole is connected through the signal-boxes with the extensions 7c. The circuit Within the box is from extension 70 to the platinum point a and the arm m; by wire 5 to the electromagnet F; by wire 6 througha common point, r, to electro-magnet E; by wire 7 to stop cl, to pointer B and driving-shaft.

There are as many extensions 7c and magnets F for operating the indicator of any given engine-house as there are signal-boxes in the system connected with that enginehouse, and the number of signal boxes will usually correspond to the number of slots in the dial, less one, although the dial may be constructed to have several more slots than there are signalboxes, to provide for future needs or contingencies.

The magnet E, which actuates the stop d, is common to all the circuits, the wire from every magnet F being connected to the wire 6, which runs to the magnet E at some convenient point, as r.

The actuating-spring for the hand B is made v stronger thanthe spring h, for a reason that at the central station, the circuit going from tension is to the hands.

the hand of that indicator directly to the gongs and bells.

The operation of the apparatus in any given engine-house is as follows: On the ringing in of an alarm from any box--say 2a-the magnet F connected with that box is operated, and also the magnet E, which is common to all the boxcircuits. This causes the stop (I to be removed from the path of the hand b, and also causes the end of the extension 7c to be pushed out into that path. The hand B, on being released, travels in the direction of the arrow until it strikes against the end of the extension k, which, in obedience to the superior power of the driving-spring, moves to the opposite end of the slot (4, thereby breaking the circuit of magnets F and E at a k,and cutting out ofv the circuit all magnets except the gong and bell magnets. The circuit is now from one pole of the battery,through the signal box 24, to the extension it, connected with that box, to the hand B,and from there to the hand of the central-office apparatus by an exactly similar course-namely, through the ex- From this point the circuit passes to the battery through the gong and bell magnets. The first-stroke of 2.4 is made on the gongs and bells,when the circuit is first completed, through the magnets E and E. The remaining strokes are made after those magnets have been cut out.

In point of fact, the circuitwill probably run from the hand of the indicator in every engine-house directly to the gong-magnet in that house, and will afterward pass to the indicator at the central ofliee. For convenience of illustration, however, I have shown the ap paratus as above described. The bell-towers will usually be located in a circuit between the central-office indicator and the battery.

The extensions will be held in their forward position by the force of the spring h pushing against the end of the pointer B. After a signal has been sent in, the extension k will be restored by hand, or by automatic mechanism such as I describe in an application for Letters Patent filed on the 15th day of J annary, 1885.

It will be observed that both the original and the secondary circuits pass through the pointer B. As soon, therefore, as the pointer B has left the stop (1, there is no circuit for any box except one that has already been operated. .Moreover, in case two boxes should be operated at the same time, the pointer B would be mechanically obstructed from passing to the extension 70 which was farthest around the dial until the nearest extension 70 had been pushed back after the receipt of the box-signal. The magnets F and E being operated simultaneously, the end of the extension is will always be out in position to engage the pointer B as soon as it comes along.

Thenumerals in the central-office apparatus, instead of indicating the numbers of signal- 1 boxes, will represent the numbers of the precincts or engine-houses from which the alarms come. It is clear thatjust as it is impossible that'the signals from two boxes should interfere, so no interference can take place at the central office between the signals from two or more precincts.

The central office or station will usually be located in one of the engine-houses. The signal-boxes connected with any given enginehouse may be called a system of signalboxes.

It will be observed that the system of signalboxes represented at the bottom of the drawing is joined to a different loop, X, running from the same pole as the loop X. The number of loops may be as great as is found convenient.

Having now described my invention,what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

1. The combination, with an electric-circuit conductor running in a loop from one pole of a generator back to the same pole, of two or more systems of circuit-closers connected with different engine-houses in multiple-arc relation between the said conductor and the opposite poleof the generator, electromagnetic apparatus at every engine-house, adapted to be actuated by the operation of any circuit-closer, whereby every other circuit-closer is cut out of the circuit, similar apparatus at a central station for cutting out all the systems except one in which a circuit-closer is first operated, and suitable receiving apparatus for receiving the signal on the operation of any circuit closer, substantially as set forth.

ICC

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2. The combination, with an electric-circuit conductor running in a loop from one pole of a battery back to the same pole, of two or more systems of signal-boxes connected with different engine-houses in multiple-arc relation between the said conductor and the opposite pole of the battery, electromagnetic apparatus at every engine-house,adapted to be actuated by the operation of any signal box, whereby the particular signal box is indicated and every other box is cut out of the circuit, similar apparatus at a central station for indicating the particular system and cutting out all the rest, and suitable gong and bell magnets for receiving the boxsignals, substantially a set forth.

3. An electric-circuit conductor running in a loop from one pole of a battery back to the same pole,. two or more systems of circuitclosers, each connected to a hand in the enginehouse belonging to its system, and electromagnetic apparatus at every engine'house, adapted to be actuated by the operation of any circuit-closer to release the hand and form a new circuit to the exclusion of the rest of the circuit-closers, in combination with conductors running from the different hands through similar apparatus to a hand at a central station, the latter hand being connected through a suitable receiving apparatus to the pole of the battery opposite that to which the loop is connected, substantially as set forth.

4:. The combination, with two or more electric-circuit conductors, each running in a loop from the same pole of the same battery back to the pole from which it started, of two or more systems of circuitclosers connected with different en gine-houses in multiple-arc relation between the said conductors and the opposite pole of the battery, electromagnetic releasing apparatus at every engine-house, adapted to be actuated by the operation of any circuit-closer to out every other circuit closer out of the circuit, similar apparatus at a central station for cutting out all the systems except one in which a circuit-closer is first operated, and suitable receiving apparatus for receiving the signal on the operation of any circuit-closer, substan' tially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my sig nature in presence of two witnesses.

LEWIS H. McOULlLOUGH.

Witnesses:

J. W. HAMILTON J OHNSON, GEORGE H. STOOKBRIDGE. 

